Page 18 - Pastoral Epistles student textbook

Study Section 3: I Timothy 1 - Avoiding False Doctrine

3.1 Connect

At the writing of this lesson, it is the year 2020. According to some, this is the year when
predictions of calamity will come to the world. Here are a few examples:

“World One” – A computer program named “World One,” which was developed in 1973
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), predicts 2020 to be the year when a
series of catastrophic events kick off a 20-year process of a slow demise of human civilization.

The second coming – According to a 1973 book by astrologer Jeane Dixon, Jesus is scheduled to return
sometime in the years 2020–2037, ushering in the apocalypse. But then again, she also predicted that
there would be a cure for cancer by 1967.

The Viking stone – A team of Swedish researchers recently managed to decipher the writings on a
stone slab dated back to 800 CE. It turned out to be a Viking prophecy about the end of the world due
to a “battle with the weather”—a wording eerily reminiscent of the currently unfolding climate crisis.

False prophets are not new. They existed in the days of Paul. As soon as he would travel to a place
and start a church of new believers, it was not long before false prophets came to these churches to
spread their poison of lies in order to defeat the Christians. The tactic was to ADD new information to
what Paul taught them to pervert his message. This is Satan’s plan from the beginning: challenge
truth with error.

Today let’s see how Paul instructs the pastors to avoid false doctrines and those who teach lies.

3.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to define what false doctrine is and why it is so dangerous to
the faith.

2. The student should be able to state the purpose of the Old Testament Law.

3. The student should be able to state the definition of grace and why it is so important in light of the
Old Testament Law.

3.3 Avoiding False Doctrines

1:3-5. Don’t teach false doctrine.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may
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command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote
themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial
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speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this
command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a
sincere faith.
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